German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the world's economic powers to send a “signal of strength” by agreeing to tougher financial regulation, arguing Thursday that people are impatient to see change after paying billions to bail out banks. Merkel, leader of the euro zone's largest economy, has stepped up calls for tighter regulation of the financial sector as Germany and its European Union partners assemble a $1 trillion euro zone rescue package aimed at containing the continent's crisis over heavy amounts of government debt. The rescue package remains unpopular with German voters who object to paying for other countries' mistakes, and Merkel is now emphasizing world leaders' promises to respond with new rules to prevent more financial turmoil - and arguing that market misbehavior has made the current trouble worse. Merkel recalled that, at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008 when governments had to plow billions in taxpayer money into propping up banks and other financial institutions, the Group of 20 rich and developing nations agreed “every product, every actor and every financial center must be regulated - we promised people that.” “Now, after one and a half or two years, people are saying: what came of that?” she said. “At some point we have to provide the proof and say, ‘come here, we've done it.' This point shouldn't be too far away.” “My appeal is: let us send a common signal of strength at the G-20 summit” in Canada next month, Merkel said at a conference on regulation. In response to the global economic crisis, the G-20 - which combines traditional leading industrial nations with rising powers such as China and India - has been designated the key forum for economic coordination among countries. Merkel has pushed hard to shape the agenda as Europe struggles to cope with market fears that governments will not be able to pay their debts. She insisted on tough conditions for a joint EU bailout of Greece, and called for new rules to prevent governments from undermining the euro with reckless spending, saying violators should be kicked out of the euro. Across Europe, leaders have shown an increased resolve to regulate amid the debt crisis. On Tuesday, EU governments overrode British objections and US worries to tighten rules for hedge funds, and Germany's securities regulator unilaterally announced curbs on traders of government debt and bank stocks. Germany's trading limits, however, took markets by surprise, and unsettled investors led a sharp sell-off in the euro and stocks. EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier underlined the “determination of the European agenda” on regulation and said governments need to show their citizens quickly that they have learned the lessons of the financial crisis.
